The Way Things and More Things Work, Alternate Version
by celrock
Summary: What if Chuckie, Kimi, Phil, and Lil had also been there with Tommy, showing Dil how different things work in the world? Read this to find out! Takes place during season 7.


Author's Note: Once again, no new chapter in Nell's Adventures in Babysitting, but on this late evening of March 4, 2017, after spending my day beneath a blanket to beat the freezing cold, as a result of my heat being out for most of the day, only to have my Bluetooth keyboard for my iPhone finally bite the dust on me come evening after my heat finally returned for the most part, I needed something to help me calm down, so this evening, while finally grabbing me a bite to eat, I watched a couple of season 7 Rugrats episodes on DVD, which included two of my favorite shorter ones, those being, The Way Things Work, and The Way More Things Work, and was reminded of yet again, another idea I came up with a while back when watching these episodes during The Splat, and chatting with my pals on Facebook. And so, without further a due, let's move on, to another alternate take, of two shorter episodes!

The Way Things and More Things Work, Alternate Version

Summary: What if Chuckie, Kimi, Phil, and Lil had also been there with Tommy, showing Dil how different things work in the world? Read this to find out! Takes place during season 7.

Disclaimer: I do not own the original Rugrats characters, they're the property of their original creaters.

It was a beautiful day, and Tommy and Dil had been outside. Though earlier in the day, Tommy had taken Dil all over the downstairs of the house, showing him different things, until he spit up, needing a bath. After the bath, while Stu was weed wacking, Tommy continued to show Dil different things in the backyard, and had just finished showing him Spike's doghouse, when their little friends, Phil and Lil DeVille from next door, and Chuckie and Kimi Finster from down the street, showed up to play. Curious, the gang of four toddlers, headed over to Spike's doghouse where Tommy and Dil were sitting in the grass, to see what they were up to.

"Hey! What you guys doing?" Lil asked.

Tommy looked up to see Phil and Lil, along with Chuckie and Kimi before him.

"Oh, hi guys, I was just showing Dil all about how different stuff worked. I taughted him about grass, the sandbox, and we were just looking at Spike's doghouse, and earlier, I showed him the fridgerator and the mirror." Tommy explained.

"You mean that place where the light hides at night?" Phil asked.

"And, our way into Mirrorland, where everything's, well, uh, not normen, and kind of, scary?" Chuckie asked nervously.

Tommy then realized he forgot about that part.

"Oh yeah, I guess I forgotted about that part. I toldid Dil that it's where extra you live so you've gots someone to play with when you get lonely." Tommy said.

"That's not true Tommy. Member, we went to Mirrorland once?" Chuckie asked, hoping Tommy would recall what he was talking about.

But it had been so long since that adventure, as that happened way before Dil was born, amongst other things, that Tommy was having a hard time remembering this. No matter, Phil decided to intervene with a question.

"Have you showed Dil about mud?" Phil asked.

"Or worms?" Lil asked.

"Or playing ball? Something that's really fun to do outside?" Kimi asked.

"No, I haven't, but that gives me an idea! How about if we all teach Dil about different things, you know, how they work." Tommy suggested.

" _Why didn't we think of this when we were giving Dil his itchynation?_ " Phil thought to himself, as Tommy went on to explain the idea.

"We can each take turns showing Dil different things! Both, in the backyard, and even inside the house!" Tommy said.

"That's a great idea Tommy." Chuckie said.

Everybody else nodded their heads in agreement, and together, they all shook on it, and decided to see who would go first.

"My turn." Phil said, grabbing on to a corner of the blanket that Dil was sitting on, as he saw to taking him all over the yard to show him different things.

First, he took him over to a mud puddle, and with his back to the mud puddle, he looked Dil in the eye and started explaining it to him.

"Dil, this is mud. You can eat it, and play in it too. Watch." Phil explained, as he turned around, and like a professional diver, about to jump into one of those Olympic sized swimming pools, he dived into the mud puddle, sinking up to his head.

Phil then splashed around in the mud puddle, getting mud everywhere, including some on Dil's hand, who remembering what Phil said, stuck his muddy hand into his mouth, only to spit out the mud immediately, not liking the taste of it very much. No matter, he enjoyed watching Phil's acrobatic work, as he continued to play in the mud. First, he constructed a snowman made out of mud. Then, he made angels, like snow angels, only they were made out of mud, and then, he licked some mud off of his fingers, getting his fingers all covered in drool, which he then proceeded to rub all over his clothes. Dil was laughing the entire time, finding Phil to be quite funny, as he, too joined in laughing. Then, just at that moment, a worm came up out of the mud.

"Ah yes, wormies, they come from mud, just like Reptar cereal comes from the store where mommies and daddies buy food. I don't knows why mommies and daddies don't just, make mud pies. I guess I'll find out when I'm all growed up, but for now, here, have a wormie." Phil said, picking up a worm and dangling it in front of Dil's face, hoping he'll give it a try.

"Mine!" Dil cried, grabbing the worm from Phil's hand, and throwing it across the yard.

However, when Dil threw the worm, he and Phil failed to notice that it landed in Chuckie's hair. Noticing something strange on his head, Chuckie reached up and grabbed the slimy worm out of his hair.

"Eeewww! Who put a worm in my hair?" Chuckie asked, looking disgusted.

He soon learned his answer when he saw a muddy covered Phil come in his direction.

"Oh, sorry about that Chuckie, I was just showing Dil the bestest things about mud and worms." Phil said.

"Maybe to you they're the bestest, but to me, they're just, kind of disgusting. I've gots betterer stuff to show Dil about. Come on." Chuckie said, grabbing up the corner of Dil's blanket, and dragging him towards Didi's garden and the fence.

"Dil, these are flowers, colorful plants that smell sweet, but sometimes…" Chuckie said, picking up a dandelion and getting a funny feeling in his nose, as he let out a huge sneeze, blowing the fuzzies in every which direction.

"Uh, as you can see, some flowers, like dandelions, can make you sneeze, while others, can give you a booboo." Chuckie explained, pointing to a rose bush.

"Ooh!" Dil cried, spying the pretty roses.

"Now Dil, you don't wanna touch those, they're too dangerous. Trust me, I know." Chuckie said, as he then moved on to show Dil the fence.

"This, Dil, is the fence. It keeps us nice and safe inside the backyard so nothing bad can happen to us." Chuckie explained, then looking very nervous, as he recalled some of the things that can occur on the other side of the fence.

"Now be careful Dil, you don't wanna go beyond the fence, there's a big monster dog on the other side that can hurt you if you're not careful." Chuckie warned, as Dil glared at him nervously.

"No worries Dil, we're not going to that yard, though Tommy once thought otherwise, when his ball ended up there, even if we did almost get eated alive." Chuckie whispered, taking Dil back over to the rest of the gang, who were all making sandcastles in Tommy's sandbox.

"Hey Chuckie and Dil, what did you guys go learn about?" Lil asked upon seeing them come towards the sandbox.

"I was just showing Dil about flowers and the fence and how apportant it is in keeping us safe." Chuckie said.

"What about playing with the ball?" Kimi asked.

Tommy skimmed the backyard, but couldn't find his favorite ball anywhere. Then, looking into the glass doors into where his playpen area was, he spotted it.

"The ball's inside, come on!" Tommy said, as everybody headed inside the house to play a nice game of roll the ball.

This time, Kimi grabbed the corner of Dil's blanket and escorted him inside the house, and once they were in the playpen, they all sat in a circle, where Kimi picked up the infamous green, blue, and orange star ball, and started rolling it around to each baby in the group. When it got to Dil though, he didn't roll it, but rather, threw it towards Chuckie, where it hit him in the face, knocking his glasses off.

"AAAHHH! What happened? You guys all growed hairs!" Chuckie cried, noticing how fuzzy everything looked around him because his glasses fell off.

"We didn't grow any hairs Chuckie, but here." Phil said, picking up his glasses off of the floor and handing them to him.

He put them back on his face, breathing a sigh of relief that he could see clearly again.

"Oh." Chuckie said, glancing at Phil, a look of embarrassment on his face.

"Now Dil, you're spose to roll the ball, like this." Chuckie said, rolling the ball to his sister.

Kimi picked up the ball and smiled, getting a brilliant idea.

"It's not just a ball, it's a giant ice cream cone!" Kimi cried, rolling the ball in Dil's direction, who by his next move, one would have thought he actually believed Kimi.

When it came towards him, he picked up the ball, licked it, and started drooling, like he actually thought the ball was something you eat.

"We don't eat the ball Dil, we're just, pretending it's ice cream." Tommy said, grabbing the ball away from his brother.

"I could go for some real food though." Phil said, looking into his diaper, only to be met with the disappointment that he had nothing in there at the moment.

Noticing the look of disappointment on her twin's face, Lil spoke up.

"What is it Phillip?" Lil asked.

"I'm all out of food." Phil replied.

"How could you run out of food Phillip?" Lil snapped.

"I was hungry!" Phil moaned, as Lil reached into her diaper and pulled out a Reptar bar.

"Well here, I was gonna save it for later, but here, have a Reptar bar." Lil said, handing her brother the treat.

"Thanks." Phil said, taking a bite out of his Reptar bar, as Lil went ont to explain a couple of things to Dil.

"Yeah Dil, diapies are the bestest place to store food, specially when you're hungry and the growed ups don't gots any food for us. And some of us, find in between growed up food feeding time, a much bigger deal than others." Lil said, pointing a finger at her brother, who simply rolled his eyes.

Shortly after finishing his Reptar bar though, he stuck out his tongue, to show off his now green tongue.

"And Reptar bars are the bestest, cuz they taste all chocolatie, and turn your tongue green!" Lil said.

"Repbar Repbar!" Dil cried.

"You've gots to get teeth before you can eat Reptar bars like us big babies, but when you're a big baby like us, you're sure to love them. I know I do." Tommy said with a smile, as he got his screwdriver out of his diaper and unlatched the playpen.

"Where are we going?" Phil asked.

"I was thinking, we haven't showed Dil how stuff upstairs works." Tommy said.

"But Tommy, how are we gonna get Dil upstairs?" Chuckie asked, as Lil grabbed the corner of his blanket this time.

"I've gots a idea." Lil said, as everybody went over to the staircase.

Then, each baby climbed up the stairs, and making a line, Dil was drug up the stairs, first to Phil, who passed him to Kimi, who passed him to Chuckie, who then passed him to Tommy, who was almost at the top. Soon, everybody was at the top of the stairs, when they went into the bathroom, and Chuckie noticed he needed to potty.

"Uh, before we go explore the world upstairs, can I go potty first?" Chuckie asked.

"Sure Chuckie." Tommy said, as Dil picked up a magazine off of the magazine rack of the bathroom, seeing he was the closest to it, and handed it to Chuckie.

"Uh, thanks Dil, but, we can't read yet, we're babies." Chuckie said.

But Dil picked up another magazine and threw it in the direction of the toilet, causing it to land inside, unknowingly by anybody. It then hit Tommy what Dil was thinking.

"Uh, I toldid Dilly that you can poop, and read at the same time while on the mommy and daddy potty." Tommy said.

Chuckie shook his best friend by the shoulders, glaring at him.

"Uh, Tommy, maybe our mommies and daddies can do that, but we can't! Now, would you guys please get Dil and get out of here? I've really gots to go now, and I need my privacy!" Chuckie screamed.

Kimi grabbed up Dil and they fled the bathroom with Phil being the last one to leave, closing the door behind him. They headed to the nursery, where they started to explore the room. Kimi found a soft teddy bear on the floor, and handed it to Dil.

"This is a nice soft cuddly bear! They make great sleeping pals." Kimi said, just as Dil snuggled up with the bear, nibbling on its ear a little bit, as he closed his eyes, yawned, and fell asleep.

No sooner had this happened though, when the other babies heard a scream and a loud splash. They gasp and ran towards the bathroom, where Chuckie walked out, his shoes and socks soaking wet.

"What happened Chuckie?" Tommy asked.

"Uh, I think we feeded the potty something it's allergic to." Chuckie said, pointing to the floating magazine inside the bowl surrounded by water on the floor.

"Oops." Phil muttered, as Chuckie ran past the gang towards the nursery, where he saw Dil had awakened and glanced sleepily over at Chuckie.

"Now Dil, potties only like poop and pee pee, if you feed them books, they'll throw up." Chuckie said, showing Dil his wet shoe.

"Yucky!" Dil said, tossing Chuckie's wet shoe back at him.

"Uh, Dil, I'm not Angelica, but yeah, I agree, my shoe is yucky." Chuckie said.

"Yucky Chubby!" Dil cried.

Everyone was confused by what he was referring to, not to mention, looking around the room, they were all starting to grow tired, unsure of what to show Dil next.

"What do we show him next Tommy?" Chuckie asked, putting his shoe back on.

Tommy let out a huge yawn.

"I don't know you guys, maybe we ought to take a nappy and sleep on it." Tommy suggested.

"I know! We'll teacher Dil all about taking nappies!" Kimi suggested, grabbing a blanket that was dangling over the side of Dil's crib, and bringing it back over to him.

"Come on Dil, this blankie will keep you nice and toasty warm." Kimi said, wrapping him up in the blanket.

Tommy ran off and grabbed a pillow, then brought it back.

"And this pillow, it's like a bed for your head!" Tommy cried, placing the pillow on the floor and helping Dil to lie down.

"And before you know it…" Lil started to say, but before she could finish, Dil had fallen back to sleep.

Feeling tired at this point, the remaining five toddlers all curled up in a corner of the room, huddled together and took a nap together. An hour later, Didi went upstairs to check on the kids.

"Awe, they look so sweet all curled up sleeping together." Didi quietly whispered, observing the toddlers curled up together in the corner, and then, glancing over at Dil on the floor.

Not wanting anybody to step on Dil, she picked him up and placed him down in his crib, still asleep. She then turned out the lights and closed the door, as she headed back downstairs to get dinner ready. Not long after she left, Dil awoke with a start, noticing he was not where he had been previously lying, and started to cry. This awoke the other babies, who quickly noticed this too.

"What's the matter with Dil Tommy?" Chuckie sleepily asked, rubbing his eyes and stretching.

Tommy quickly looked around and saw that Dil was no longer on the floor, but in his crib.

"Oh no! Dil's trapped!" Tommy cried.

"But how did that happen?" Phil asked.

"Yeah, Dil can't walk by himself." Lil added.

"Maybe Tommy's mommy came in here and putted him in bed." Chuckie suggested.

"That must be it Chuckie, we've gots to get him out." Tommy said, running over to the crib, but not being able to reach the top of the bars, he'd need his friends help.

"Come on you guys, help me up." Tommy said, as everybody except Tommy crouched down, Chuckie being on the bottom, then Phil climbed on top of him, followed by Lil, and Kimi on the very top.

"See Dil, we all help each other, reach the sky!" Kimi said, as Tommy climbed up to Kimi's back, where he stood tall, just at the right height to reach the top of the crib.

He then pulled out his screwdriver from his diaper.

"And this, Dilly, is a stewdriver. It helps you get unstuck from those places where the growed ups like to stick us, like the playpen and in bed." Tommy said, undoing the bars like he once did when he still slept in the crib, only from outside the crib this time.

"And one day when you're biggerer, you'll be able to let yourself out too." Tommy said, as the bar slid down, nearly landing on Chuckie's fingers at the bottom.

"AAAHHH! My fingers!" Chuckie screamed, startling all of the other toddlers, as they nearly lost their balance on top of Chuckie, who scooted out of the way.

Luckily, Tommy grabbed Dil's hands, and he and Dil fell backwards to the floor, Dil landing on top of Tommy, as everybody jumped out of the way. Dil started giggling.

"Tommy Tommy!" Dil cried in between fits of laughter, as everybody joined in laughing, only for Phil to notice something.

"What's that smell coming from the kitchen?" Phil asked, sniffing around.

Everybody else took a wiff of the air, becoming curious as well.

"I don't know Phil, let's go see." Tommy said, quickly looking around for the blanket where Dil had been previously lying on.

Luckily, it was still on the floor, so they got him positioned, and everybody saw to heading for the stairs, where they now had a new problem. Getting Dil down the stairs.

"Now what are we gonna do?" Lil asked.

"I know." Kimi said, lying down on her side, and rolling down the stairs.

When she landed at the bottom, she looked up to her friends and smiled.

"See? It's like a bumpy slide!" Kimi cried.

Not wanting anything bad to happen to his little brother, Tommy went next, carrying Dil. Their tumble down the stairs was a bit, awkward, but they made it down to the bottom, with Tommy coming down on his bottom, Dil on top of him, till he nearly lost his grip on Dil at the bottom, Kimi grabbing at Dil's feat, tickeling them in the process, making him laugh.

Phil and Lil then rolled down the stairs like Kimi had previously done, leaving Chuckie at the top, a bit hesitant to try this.

"Uh, I think I'll just, walk down the stairs." Chuckie said, walking down the stairs.

"Why not? Rolling down them's fun!" Phil cried.

"Uh, not for me." Chuckie said, wanting to show Dil the proper way to come down the stairs.

When he got to the bottom, he cleared his throat and stared at Dil, a serious expression on the redhead's face.

"Now Dil, I just demonstrated, the proper and safe way, for big babies and growed ups, to walk down the stairs." Chuckie said, just as Didi came out of the kitchen to find the kids at the bottom of the stairs.

"Oh look at that! Is everybody ready for dinner?" Didi asked, picking up her youngest child, who's tummy gurgled loudly.

All of the other babies stomachs gurgled loudly at this point too, as they all followed Didi into the kitchen and took seats at the table. Shortly after everybody was seated, Stu and Didi came around placing sippy cups and bowls of spaghetti with meat sauce in front of all of the kids.

"Dil, this, is a sippy cup. It's what big babies drink out of. And look, there's a top on it so we don't spill." Chuckie said, taking a sip of his drink.

"Ooh!" Dil cried, picking up the spoon from his bowl.

"That's a spoon Dilly, you use it to eat with." Tommy said, scooping up some spaghetti with his spoon and putting it in his mouth.

However, Dil had other ideas, as he scooped up some spaghetti like what he saw Tommy do, then, he threw the spoon on to the floor, where Spike ran up to it, and licked the bowl of the spoon clean of noodles and sauce. Observing this, Phil turned to the rest of the group.

"Hmmm, guess Dil thought it was used to feed Spike." Phil commented.

"I thought Spike ate out of a bowl Phillip, not a spoon." Lil argued.

"Nuh uh Lillian, Spike eats out of a spoon now." Phil argued.

"Bowl!" Lil argued.

"Spoon!" Phil argued.

"Bowl!" Lil argued.

"Spoon!" Lil argued.

Chuckie though, trying to tune out Phil and Lil's arguing, turned to his best friend with a worried look.

"I don't know if we're teaching Dil right." Chuckie said worriedly.

But before Tommy could say anything, Kimi spoke up.

"Yeah Dil, bowls do make great hats too!" Kimi cried.

Realizing this, they all turned to see that Dil had placed his bowl of spaghetti on his head, and was proceeding to stick his tongue out, and trying to catch the tomato sauce on it as it dripped out of the bowl, very much like people will try to catch snowflakes on their tongue when it's snowing outside.

"Wow! Dil thought up a really fun game you guys! Look!" Kimi said, copying what Dil was doing, by putting the bowl on her head, and trying to catch the drippy tomato sauce on her tongue.

"That does look like fun!" Phil cried. Imitating Kimi and Dil.

And soon after, Lil and Tommy were doing the same, leaving Chuckie in the dust, a bit unsure about doing this game.

"Come on Chuckie, try it!" Tommy encouraged, catching some sauce on his tongue and swallowing it.

"I don't know. I mean, if I put the bowl on my head, I'm just gonna get sauce and pagetti in my hair and then it's gonna make a bit mess and then daddy's gonna have to give me a bath." Chuckie complained.

"But baths are fun too!" Kimi cried.

Chuckie hesitated for a second, and seeing how much fun his sister and friends were having with this new game Dil had invented, he decided to join in the fun. Soon, he, too, had his bowl on his head, but he kept missing the sauce, as he could never seem to catch any on his tongue, rather, it dripped down on his shirt. However, a noodle fell just inches above his nose. Reaching his tongue up, he grabbed the end of the noodle, and slurped it into his mouth.

"You were right Tommy, this game is fun! Who knew Dil could teach us something fun!" Chuckie said.

"Yeah! We were teaching my brother just fine! He's not only the bestest learner, but the bestest teacher too!" Tommy cried, as the last of the spaghetti sauce dribbled out of his bowl into his mouth.

Just then, the adults walked in, including Betty and Chas, noticing the kids with the bowls on their heads.

"Looks like I'm gonna have to give you two a bath." Chas said, getting his kids cleaned up enough to take them home.

Betty didn't bother, grabbing her kids as she removed the bowls, set them down on the table, and rushed out of the kitchen, a bit disgusted by their behavior. Didi came over with a rag to wipe off Tommy and Dil's heads, and a short while later, everybody was at their respected homes, taking a bath, splashing around in the tub and having fun, as they saw to getting clean.

The End

Author's Note: Okay, not sure if my story was any better than those two shorts, and at one time, I thought about having Tommy show Dil the stuff in the episode mixed in with the other toddlers, but then, as you can see, I more or less, combined the two short episodes, and extended them to feature the other babies, and finally, Dil's game at the dinner table in the end. I wanted each of the babies to show him different things, trying to keep them in character as much as possible, hopefully, I did okay with this bit. Episodes referenced in this piece, Mirrorland and Let There be Light from season 2, Big Babies and What's your Line from season 6, which, for your information, Phil thinking about Dil's itchination was the Big Babies reference, and in What's your Line, Chuckie did actually prick his finger on a thorn of a rose and get a booboo. I also referenced In the Dreamtime from season 3, and Barbecue Story from season 1, when Chuckie mentioned the fence and the monster dog in the next yard. And you can count the Reptar bar reference with turning your tongue green, a reference to Candy Bar Creep Show from season 1 at that rate as well. And I guess, I sort of, indirectly, referenced an earlier season 7 episode, that being, Day of the Potty when the toilet overflowed, I thought the way I had Chuckie describe it was good. I can't think, if I really made any references to any other episodes, I don't believe I did, but if you read this and find I somehow, referenced any other episodes and I failed to mention them here, please, feel free to say something in your review, should you decide to leave a review. I hope you enjoyed this story, and be looking for more stories, and updates to existing ongoing stories, coming soon!


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